DeLay Watch: There is growing evidence that congressionalRepublicans believe that Tom DeLay is a public relations liability.

Defending Free Speech: In an op-ed over on HNN's mainpage, David Beito of Liberty and Power, KC Johnson and I ask"Who's Undermining Freedom of Speech on Campus Now?" We're calling for an alliance of academics across ideological divides to fight both"speech codes" and David Horowitz's"Academic Bill of Rights."

Horowitz Watch: Who does not know that Brother Horowitz was hit with a pie at Butler University last week? After one missed Ann Coulter, this is the third hit on a" conservative" speaker on American campuses in recent weeks. I tend to blame the coarsening of American public discourse. William Kristol is worthy of a fair hearing on campuses, imho, and Pat Buchanan, Coulter, and Horowitz are more dubious guest speakers. Once the pie-tossing starts, however, the assailants don't accept my qualitative distinctions. A professional wrestler at the University of Connecticut doesn't get hit; the editor of the Weekly Standard gets pied. And is it that campus conservatives are above such behavior that speakers on the Left have not recently been targeted? You can joke about the distinctions in terms of the kind of pie that gets thrown, if you will. Imho, Horowitz deserves a cow pie. But, at the end of the day, my humble opinion of Horowitz's dessert only further coarsens the discourse and it all becomes fodder for his dyspepsia and flatulence.

Transitions: New Kid on the Hallway has an interesting post on the difference between and transition from being a graduate student and a professor.

Ralph E. Luker - 4/11/2005

Jim, I don't have the technical access to delete comments. Just count yourself lucky that I don't post an update to the pie throwing thing that calls attention to my ignorance and your kind correction of it.